In response to a withering opinion piece in this morning’s Des Moines Register, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the president and vice president are in “fantasyland” thinking that their efforts to improve the economy have worked.

Romney said, according to a transcript provided by his campaign aides: “Of course the economy will get better. There has a never been a time in American history when a downturn has not replaced by a period of growth.

“That is the nature of recession and recovery. There will of course be a recovery. The question is, has this recovery been as speedy as it should have been, number one?

“Number two, have the policies of this president helped or hurt?

“And number three, has the president been willing to take on the looming challenges we face to make sure that we have a bright future.”

“And I think the answer to those questions time and time again is the president has failed us. And I think the American people understand that.

“We have not had a president who has got this economy going again as he should have. His stimulus was poorly crafted. His legislative initiatives made it harder for the economy to reboot.

“And the actions he has failed to take right now make it more difficult for the America of the future. With $15 trillion in debt, and with public debt having reached 80 percent of the GDP, we are on track to hit what Italy and Greece and Spain have hit.

“And this president hasn’t been willing to deal with that. I think the American people recognize that on the course he has chosen, America becomes weaker. He has put us on a road to decline.

“I’ll get us off that road, get Americans working again, make it good for the middle class again. It’s just astonishing to have the vice president write an op-ed, trying to describe how good things are.

“You have 25 million Americans out of work, or stopped looking for work, or can only find part-time work. You have home values continuing to decline. You have median income in America over the last four years dropping ten percent.

“Get out there and talk to people, you’ll find out it hasn’t gotten better yet.

“Will it get better? Sure.

“But I can tell you it’s going to get a lot better if you have someone who understands the economy and works to make this the most attractive economy in the world for job hiring for business and for growth.”